Shadow Academy

by Jamie Campbell

  “There is a full set of heritage documents in the library if you care to delve a bit deeper.”

  “Heritage documents?”

  “Like family trees and such. When you live for hundreds of years, it helps to know who you’re related to.”

  I didn’t entirely understand what he was saying but at the same time I didn’t really want to know either. I could only think of one reason why you would want to make sure you weren’t related to people.

  I thanked the professor and hurried back to the library. I hadn’t seen any documents like family trees in the shelves so I went straight to the resident librarian and asked the middle-aged vampire. She pointed to a small room behind the counter.

  The room was basically just a large cupboard but the books they held were leather-bound and thick. Some looked older than the oldest vampire.

  I started with the cleanest and newest ones and then worked backwards. I didn’t have to go very far before I found my own family’s tree.

  Joanna Oakford married Benjamin Musgrave and had one daughter—me. On the next branch up was none other than the Samara Oakford of legend. She was born in 1940, making her forty-five years of age when the war began.

  A good age to be falling in love with someone she wasn’t supposed to.

  While the family tree didn’t entirely confirm my suspicions, it did confirm that my grandmother had the exact same name.

  I returned to the history section of the library and pulled out book after book on the Civil War. I kept searching until I found the information I needed. Samara Oakford lived in Montana and had a daughter named Joanna. They had a picture of them both and everything.

  My mother had a picture up at home of her when she was just a little girl. That picture looked exactly like the picture of the little girl in the book happily smiling with her mother.

  They were definitely one and the same.

  What would the witch that started a war think about having a roach as her granddaughter? If she knew, she’d probably disown me like my parents had. I would bring so much shame to my family.

  But I wanted to speak to her so badly. I knew my grandmother was still alive from the Christmas card she sent us every year without fail—even if we moved. I wanted to hear about her love for a vampire from her own mouth. She was a walking textbook. How many people could say that?

  I needed to find her.

  “What are you doing here so late?” The voice startled me. I looked up from the book to see Liam leaning oh-so-casually against a bookcase.

  “Working on something,” I replied, closing the book so he didn’t see.

  “Working on what?”

  I hesitated, wondering if I should tell him. He’d shown me secret parts of the academy, were we friends enough to discuss my heritage?

  If anything, having my grandmother be the Samara Oakford would make people think I must be a great witch to live up to her status. I had the genes from a powerful witch running through my body.

  Plus, I really wanted to tell someone.

  “Today I discovered my grandmother was the witch that started the Supernatural Civil War of 1985,” I stated and then paused to wait for the reaction.

  Like always, Liam played it cool. “Are you sure?”

  I opened the textbook as he came closer to have a look. I pointed at the photograph of Samara and her daughter. “That is my mother, Joanna. We have a similar photograph at home, just without my grandmother in it.”

  “That’s…weird that you only found out today. Didn’t your family ever talk about it?”

  “We haven’t spoken with my grandmother for as long as I can remember. My parents would never tell me why. Maybe it’s got something to do with the war?”

  He studied me closely, his eyes grazing over every inch of my face. “I should have put it together earlier,” he said quietly, more to himself than me.

  “Put what together?”

  “Nothing. I don’t know. Just nothing.”

  He went to turn away but I placed my hand on his arm to stop him. “What should you have put together?” I asked, a little more desperately than I was aiming for.

  “Nothing.” He shook his head and the strange expression changed into a friendly one again. “What are you going to do now? I mean, you can’t just sit on this information.”

  I didn’t have to think long for an answer. “I want to see her. She caused a freaking war. I need to know everything about her.”

  “I’d be careful if I were you. There might have been a good reason why your mother stopped talking to her.”

  He had a good point. If a daughter cut off ties with her mother, there had to be a significant problem. Families worked through issues all the time, they didn’t just start pretending the other didn’t exist.

  Unless one of them was a roach, of course.

  If my parents were talking to me, I would call home and ask them. Considering my father specifically told me not to call, I would have to find out from the other side. I needed to speak with my grandmother.

  “I’m going to talk with her,” I declared. The words felt good, they were the right course of action. Even if the legendary Samara Oakford wouldn’t speak with me, at least I could try.

  “How about we go tomorrow?” Liam asked unexpectedly.

  “You want to come with me?”

  “Yeah. A chance to meet a badass witch who started a war? Hell yeah.”

  There was just one problem. “I have no idea where she lives.”

  “That’s what locator spells are for.”

  He grinned but all I could think about was how I wouldn’t be able to perform the spell. I tried to think of an excuse not to. After all, the spell should be easier for me to perform because I’m a blood relative. Just a few words and actions and poof! her location should become clear.

  I had to say something. “I’m terrible at locator spells. I couldn’t do one to save my life.” It was far better he thought I was incompetent rather than without magic. One I could handle, the other was deadly.

  He grinned. “Lucky for you, I’m excellent at them. They helped me find my father on several occasions when he forgot to come home and I’d been alone for weeks on end.”

  There were clearly issues in Liam’s family too. I guessed every family had a few skeletons dancing in the closet. It seemed that I had a big old house full of them.

  “Let’s get started then,” I replied.

  Twenty minutes later, we had an address.

  “We’ll go first thing tomorrow morning,” Liam said.

  I definitely couldn’t sleep after that. Suddenly my weekend plans seemed so much more exciting than they had a few hours earlier.

  My mother would not have approved.

  Chapter 13

  My grandmother lived two hours away from Shadow Academy. She was so close and yet she seemed a world away.

  Her house was much like any other in the suburbs. Brick and tile, two-story with a double garage. The gardens surrounding her home were far more elaborate and lush than any of the other houses though. They proved to me she was definitely a witch. No human could get flowers to bloom like that. Sunflowers this late into fall was unheard of.

  I sat in Liam’s car as I took it all in. Not having any idea what caused the rift in my family made me nervous. I would be knocking on this woman’s door without any idea of what she was really like.

  Would she even want to speak with me?

  The Christmas cards had always included me in the greeting so she must have known I existed. That was probably all she knew about me.

  Maybe she would think I wanted something from her?

  My anxiety levels were through the roof—as if they weren’t bad enough to begin with. It seemed this week was going to challenge me in a hundred different ways. Everything was so much simpler when I was pretending to be human instead of pretending to be a witch.

  “Do you want me to come with you?” Liam asked.

  I pondered the same question myself. We’d tal
ked the entire two hours it took us to get there. Most of it was just small talk but we’d discussed our favorite music, classes, highlights from our life stories. Liam had opened up and told me stories about his own grandmother and how she was almost like a mother to him.

  I felt safe enough for Liam to come with me. Having his support felt right. “Yes, please.”

  He unclipped his seatbelt. “Let’s go then. We can’t sit in the car all day.”

  I suddenly panicked. “She might not be home.”

  “There’s a vehicle in the driveway.”

  “Maybe she’s busy.”

  “You won’t know unless you ask.”

  I could come up with a hundred other excuses for not getting out of the car but what was the point? Liam was right, we couldn’t sit there all day. I’d come to speak with my grandmother so that was exactly what I needed to do.

  We headed up to the house. My throat was tight and my stomach full of nerves. The flight or fight instinct was telling me very loudly to get the hell out of there.

  I knocked on the door and took a deep breath. A few moments later, it swung open to reveal an older version of my mother. The similarities were incredible.

  She studied me closely. “Can I help you?”

  I forgot to think of something clever or witty to say for when I met her for the first time. “My name is Eden Musgrave.”

  “Eden?” she asked, as if she couldn’t believe it.

  “I think you are my grandmother.”

  She stepped to me and wrapped me in a hug that was so warm and comforting that I wanted to sink right into it. “I hoped you’d come one day.”

  When she released me, I felt cold. That wasn’t the reception I had expected. Especially from a woman that my parents had shunned from their lives.

  She took my face in her hands and cupped my cheeks. “You look so much like your mother.”

  I laughed. “I think you look like my mother.”

  “Come in, come in.”

  My grandmother held the door open while Liam followed me inside. She looked him up and down. “And who is this young man?”

  “This is Liam, he’s a friend from school,” I replied.

  Liam pretended to tip his invisible hat to her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”

  “You look like a good boy. I hope you are one.”

  “Of course.” He grinned and I wasn’t sure if she would believe him or not.

  Her house was impeccably clean and homely inside. Every room was filled with luscious green plants in pots. The furniture was made from dark wood with the couch in the living room a vivid emerald green.

  There were several pieces of décor that we had at my parents’ house. I guess my mother took after her mother in many ways. Style being one of them. I’m sure she would be horrified to learn that fun fact.

  We sat in the living room while my grandmother poured us some of her homemade lemonade. It was only after we had a glass in one hand and a cookie in the other that we could start talking.

  “Does your mother know you are here?” she asked.

  “No, she doesn’t,” I replied.

  “I didn’t think she would. Did she tell you why I was never allowed to visit?”

  I shook my head. “No. She only ever told me that we didn’t speak of you and that was it. I saw your Christmas card every year.”

  “I’m glad.” She smiled kindly and put me at ease. She hadn’t closed the door in my face. She didn’t seem like a monster. So far I was winning.

  “I saw you in my history textbook,” I began. I may as well touch on less sensitive topics first. The family stuff could wait. Although, we were both shunned from my parents so I guess we had that in common.

  “I’m sorry you had to learn about me that way,” she said. “I had hoped to be able to tell you the story myself one day.” She looked at Liam and then back at me. “Does he know all about…you know?”

  “He is a warlock. We both attend Shadow Academy,” I confirmed.

  All the color seemed to drain from her face. “You go to the academy already?”

  “I turned eighteen this year.”

  She withdrew into herself and started muttering under her breath. It was such a quick change in her demeanor that left me completely confused.

  “Grandma?” I prompted. “Is everything okay?”

  She looked up and met my gaze. She forced a smile to grace her lips. “Oh yes, of course. I just forgot when your birthday was. I guess I wasn’t very good at counting. How is the academy?”

  “It’s okay. I only started last week so I’m still settling in.” That was one way to put it. Freaking out every second of every minute was another way. “Liam’s father is the principal.”

  Her eyes kept flicking between us. “The principal, you say?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Liam replied.

  Something was obviously bothering her but I didn’t know why mentioning the academy would startle her so much. Maybe if I’d been allowed to know her growing up, I would be able to ask her about it. It felt too weird probing too much when this was the first time we’d met.

  I decided to change the subject. “When was the last time you spoke with Mom?”

  “You would have just been a baby.” Her body relaxed a little so she wasn’t sitting so rigid anymore. “She let me know you arrived safely. Then she requested I step out of her life.”

  “That must have been difficult,” I said.

  “Very. I thought I was doing the right thing up until that point.”

  “The right thing with what?”

  She visibly shut down again before plastering on a new smile. Speaking with her was like riding a rollercoaster. “When we become parents, we don’t always fully comprehend how our actions can affect our children. You know I fell in love with a wonderful man who happened to be a vampire. That wasn’t a good decision for my daughter. She took it very hard.”

  “She didn’t like him?”

  “She didn’t like the consequences. But I shouldn’t speak for my daughter. She should be the one to tell you how she felt. I’m sure she will be very detailed.”

  I wasn’t about to say I wasn’t allowed to talk to my mother anymore. Not in from of Liam, anyway. “I’ll have a chat with her sometime.”

  “You should. Maybe you can also convince her that I’m not a monster? Not having her in my life is my single greatest regret.”

  It was curious that she didn’t count falling in love with a supernatural from a different faction as her biggest regret. They must have had a beautiful love story before it all got murky with the Civil War.

  She clapped her hands together suddenly. “I’m sure that’s a story for another day. Can I interest you in some scones?”

  My grandmother didn’t reveal anything else for the remaining two hours we were visiting her. She asked all the usual small talk questions—how was school, how was I enjoying the classes, did I have everything I needed. The questions went on but I couldn’t answer any of them with any kind of honesty.

  She seemed to warm to Liam and the feeling appeared to be mutual. I saw him in a whole new light as we talked and talked. Gone was the brooding principal’s son, replaced with a genial and nice guy. The kind of guy I could get used to having around.

  It almost felt normal being there. I had to keep reminding myself that things were very far from normal. I was still a roach, Liam was still just another student, and my grandmother was still a woman I didn’t know at all.

  We promised to keep in touch as Liam steered the car onto the road. I vowed to keep up my end of that bargain. I wanted to know everything about the infamous Samara Oakford. She might decide to shun me once she found out I had no magic but until then, I would enjoy it while it lasted.

  Liam and I didn’t speak much on the way back to Shadow Academy. I think we were all talked out for the day.

  When we arrived back on campus, we immediately knew something was wrong. The alarm was resonating throughout the entire place. A
continuous whamp-whamp-whamp that didn’t seem to end. There weren’t any classes on Saturdays so it shouldn’t have been sounding at all.

  There wasn’t a soul to be seen anywhere.

  “This can’t be good,” Liam said.

  I hoped he was wrong.

  Chapter 14

  Liam parked haphazardly in the parking lot before we rushed inside the main building of the academy. A few people were walking fast down the corridor.

  I stopped a girl as she went to hurry past. “What’s going on? What’s the alarm for?”

  She looked at me with fear in her brown eyes. “The academy is in lockdown.”

  “What—” I didn’t even get my question out before she ran away.

  Literally, ran away.

  “You need to get back to your room,” Liam said. He grabbed my hand and started pulling me toward the female dormitories.

  I dug my heels in. “What does lockdown mean? What’s going on?”

  He swung around to face me. “It means something bad has happened. Everyone has to go to their room until the alarm stops. We need to get you there now.”

  I didn’t fight him when he pulled me along again. That didn’t mean I shut my mouth. “Shouldn’t you be going back to your room? I can find my own way. If there’s trouble, you should—”

  “I’ll be fine. Nobody will notice me missing.”

  “I can make my own way!”

  His grip didn’t lessen. “I want to make sure you’re safe. It will drive me crazy thinking about it if I don’t walk you back. Let me do this, okay?”

  “Okay,” I replied. Just as long as he knew I was capable on my own.

  His concern for my safety would have brought a smile to my face if I wasn’t hurrying so fast after him. We raced through the main building and then out to the female dormitories.

  On the second floor staircase, I remembered that I didn’t actually live in my dorm room anymore. “I can take it from here,” I said.

  “We’re almost there.”